The Gift Of A Cat
by GirlOfFrost
Summary: Humanstuck Au with Karkat and Nepeta as adults living with one another. In an attempt to cheer his girlfriend up Karkat does something he had never pictured himself doing before: Getting a tiny gray fuzz ball of a kitten. Rated T for Karkat's language.


**So my first Katnep fic and really my first Homestuck fic ever. Excitement. So this is Humanstuck with Karkat and Nepeta being in their mid twenties or so and living together, Nepeta is a second grade teacher and I haven't quite come up with a job for Karkat so fill that in with whatever you want I suppose. I hope you enjoy. R & R! Constructive criticism is always welcome. Rated T for Karkat's potty mouth. **

**Disclaimer:Homestuck and all the characters in it do not belong to me but to Andrew Hussie. **

Karkat knew his girlfriend well, he would even wager that he may know her even better than she knew herself at times. Lately he knew that she wasn't herself. It wasn't hard to guess why, the reason was obvious: Her grandmothers death the month before had certainly taken its toll on the young woman. She hadn't been herself since, that spark of light in her eyes seemed to be missing, and he hated that more than anything. That hatred was what lead him to do something he hadn't ever imagined himself ever doing.

Desperately trying to get an over excited gray tabby kitten out of his car so he could bring it up into their shared apartment.

Nepeta shouldn't be home for another hour or so, deciding to finish grading tests at the school she worked at instead of lugging it all home. He had acted disappointed about how late she would be but really it worked perfectly into his plans for the evening. He had gone to the local pet supply store as soon as he had gotten off of work, picking out all of the supplies he believed they would need, or at least the basics. He would let her pick out any of the fancy things. After forking out enough money to make him sob internally he had juggled these new purchases to his car and went to his next stop; The Animal Shelter. She had always said how she wanted to get a cat from the shelter, she felt as if it would be doing just a little more good in the world. So he had gone and they had shown him all of the cats they had. He must of been spending far too much time with Nepeta over the years, seeing them all in the cages made him want to taken them all home. But he couldn't, only one and damn did he know how to pick them. The gray kitten had been staring at him with wide blue eyes, emitting a tiny and pitiful meow. He had sighed looking at the tiny thing, so small it would fit nearly perfectly in the palms of his hands, he had a growing weakness for cute things it seemed. So he had filled out all of the needed paper work thinking of Nepeta's face the entire time as he did.

"Ow shit stop scratching you little shit." There was no malice behind the words, just the slight annoyance of a man with a scratched up hand and a new kitten that didn't realize that it didn't need to use its sharp little claws every two seconds. He sighed to himself setting the excited kitten on the ground watching as it scampered off in a heartbeat, tiny claws clicking on the tile of their kitchen as it explored its new surroundings. They would really have to pick out a name for the little guy so he wouldn't have to keep on referring to the cat as 'it'. Taking care to make sure it hadn't snuck beneath his feet he followed the fuzz ball praying that it wouldn't think it was an apporpiate time to start marking its new territory. Time to set up the litter box...

Within the next hour the impossibly small cat caused an impossibly large amount of damage for its size. Knocking over a glass Karkat had left on the coffee table, ripping into one of the fluffy cushions on their couch, left countless scratches on his hands and arms as he tried to save it from falling off the back of the couch, relieving itself in the corner...two feet away from where the litter box was, tipping over the food and water bowls and so on. Somehow even with all the chaos it had caused in that short amount of time the kitten had somehow wormed itself into his heart and even as he muttered to himself about how stupid cats could be as he untangled it from one of its new toys he still found himself smiling. Karkat couldn't wait for Nepeta to come home already. Why the hell did correcting second graders tests take so long?

Eventually he heard the door opening, the sound of her small heels clicking on the wood flooring, keys being dropped on the kitchen counter and her soft voice calling out his name in question. Before he could answer her their new housemates ears seem to perk up in response to the new voice and a gray blur flashed across the living room and into the kitchen. Holding his breath he anxiously awaited her response. It was exactly what he had wished for.

Nepeta must of dropped her bag on the ground in shock because he could hear it fall suddenly to the floor as a loud gasp could just barely be heard. Then there was her squeal, the fangirl type squeal she only seemed to release while watching one of those dramtic shows of hers, a tiny high pitched meow and then she was here. Standing in the doorway with the gray kitten clutched tightly to her chest and tears just beginning to ebb out of her eyes as a grin split her face in two.

"Kar-Karkat did you really? I...Oh my god Karkat thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She was practically jumping up and down, unable to hold all of her excitement. Nepeta was on him in seconds, tackling him onto his back as she peppered kisses all over his face, one hand still holding their new pet carefully to her chest as she leaned off of him and pecked it on the head. Grinning freely he brought himself back up into a sitting position using as much care as he could as he reached one hand out to gently pet the purring machine between them. He could finally understand why she had loved that sound so much in high school when she still had her cat from home, constantly going on about how there was no better sound than that of a cat purring.

"Do you like him?" It was a stupid question sure, but he couldn't help but to ask it even with the new shine in her olive coloured eyes.

"Karkat you must of hit your head! I don't merely like him, I love him completely! Just look at our new purrecious baby, he's too cute for words!" She gushed excitedly scratching at the side of one of his ears. "What's his name?"

"I figured I'd give you that honor, being the new mom and all." She bit her lip lightly at that, concentrating as she racked her brains for the 'purrfect' name. Her look of concentration disappeared into one of amusement as the previously purring machine decided that he would much rather like to play with that tassle hanging off of one of the corners of a cushion on the couch.

"Thank you Karkat. Really." He opened his mouth to respond, her soft lips stopping him before he could as she closed the distance between them in one swift motion. He could taste the hot chocolate she must of been drinking, the sweet taste lingering on her lips as he wrapped one arm around her, weaving it beneath her long, forest green coat. A sudden surprised yowl made them break apart, Nepeta in alarm and him in annoyance. He gave a half hearted glare to the cat as it stumbled away from the fallen cusion, hackles raised to make its tiny form just that little bit bigger. As he glared Nepeta only laughed, carefully taking the angry puff ball into her hands and kissing the top of its head.

"Looks like I may have two grumpy men in my house now." She giggled.

"And lots of marvelous mis-fucking-adventures."


End file.
